Moving to Malaysia - Petaling Jaya or Kuala Lumpur

We used to live in Bangsar and the Alice Smith school is not that far away. There are lots of condos in the area, several shopping malls including Bangsar Village 1, 2 & 3 and Midvalley Megamall/The Gardens which is a huge mall and possibly the best in KL. Bangsar South also has many condos and the condo called KL Gateway has a shopping mall inside it. There is also an LRT train station attached, aswell as Taxi stands but in KL many people use Grab. Bangsar South is right beside the Federal Highway that leads into KL city and also leads out to Petaling Jaya, Subang Jaya and shah Alam.

Not sure about other schools, nor about football clubs, but in any case, I would much rather live in KL than Petaling Jaya. I always felt that Petaling Jaya was more a local area rather than one for expats.

@Sham1981

School.

Sayfol international school is within your budget.

Accommodation

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@Renz MC

Thanks for this info. I will certainly looks at this school for more info. Do you have more detail on the property, maybe a link to it?

@Sham1981 I'm unable to share the link here. I sent to your private chat.

@Sham1981

welcoem to drop me a whatapp message on ***

Hello everyone,

Please note that in regards to housing, offers and demands should both be posted in the Housing in Malaysia section of the website.

Thank you

Bhavna

@wyngrove60 thanks for the detailed info. I am also looking at Mont Kiara area as an option. Do you know much about this area, would you recommend it?

Sure, Mont Kiara is a nice area and lots of expats living there and a couple of malls there and many more not too far away. Rents should be competitive because they probably have quite an oversupply of available rentable properties. Some of the older condos will be cheaper too. We often searched there for apartments to buy but never got around to it. There are two international schools there although they are expensive but Garden International School is very good. Transportation is fairly direct into the city too. Lots of highways there including one leading to Mid Valley area which is where Alice Smith is located, and I think going to the general direction of Jalan Ampang where Sayful International School is located. So in my opinion, Mont Kiara is fine as a place to live, although we always liked Bangsar more as it seemed a bit less isolated. But it certainly is a popular area for expats - many Japanese and Koreans live there!

However, if you are interested in Alice Smith School then I would say Bangsar is a much better location if you want to avoid traffic jams.Something you could check with schools is about school buses. Our kids only went to Montessori schools when we were in KL so never got around to the next level schools, but I know Alice Smith is supplosed to be less expensive than many. Thee British International School I think is in Petaling Jaya? We visited it before when they held jumble sales near Christmas, and it is also very nice, but seemed very expensive especially as we both were not working.

I seem to be saying this all the time in this forum, but I always recommend going to some of the biggest property websites in Malaysia, check out the different areas in KL or wherever and contacting some of the agents since every listing has the agents name and contact number which you can WhatsApp to get more information:

www.iproperty.com.my/

www.propertyguru.com.my/

www.starproperty.my

Youll get a good idea of property rentals and agents in KL are very willing to communicate with you and show you around. I also advise to never sign an exclusivity agreement with any agent and they might sue if you find a place through another agent. They usually don't mind if you refuse to sign it, but agents just like to bind you to them. You can agree to go through them for any property you decide on that they have shown you unless another agent offers it to you at the same price.

I don't own properties in Malaysia any more, but I used to buy, sell, rent out my own properties for a long time as well as be part of condominium owners committees so have a bit of experience.

@wyngrove60 thanks again for the insight. This is really valuable information. Yes, I have been having a look at the links for properties and also reached out to a few schools now to get more information.

Unfortunately Alice Smith will be out of the equation now as my oldest is in high school and their secondary campus looks to be further away. Other options I have been looking at are the following, which seems to be in my budget:

Nobel International School

Cranbridge International School

Stella Maris International

Brighton International

I think the best thing for me to do is come to KL for a few weeks and make appointments with the schools to get a better feel for them.

When they say 'Serviced Appartments' do you know what is actually included? does it mean i.e. cleaning of the apartments, change bedsheets etc?

Some expats when they first move to KL they stay in serviced apartments for say a month or so until they find an apartment/condominium to move into permanently, and yes I think they are cleaned and have daily services. I've sometimes had tenants who have stayed in a serviced apartment and then moved into one of my apartments. Companies sometimes put new staff into them. I think there are quite a lot of them in the KLCC area. It's not bad if the rent is good.

Yes, good idea to visit KL and see the schools. I actually don't know those schools. We were at the point of almost having to choose a school, but instead moved to Indonesia, and then after a few more years chose homeschooling basically under the Cambridge curriculum.

Sham,    I thing you need to re-adjust your expectations.  Although Malaysia is one of the cheaper international destinations, the budget you have, in my opinion, is not realistic and needs to be bumped up significantly.  Here are the IGCSE schools in Malaysia.    https://educationdestinationmalaysia.co … culumThere is also the Sunway International school that is cheaper but good quality/.  It is in Subang.  I just moved my son there as the new campus opened up in January of this year with great facilities.  It is directly accessible via LRT so great if avoiding traffic.  We live downtown KLCC and it takes 1hr 10 min to get there but it is stressless, cheap and air conditioned.  Depending where you want to live, this may be a good option for you.Most of the international schools work on a 2 semester charging program with a range of 20-40KRM per semester (50-100+KRM/yr).  The french school (LFKL) is government subsidized and costs but still is between 35-40KRM/yr and you have to pay expensive bus transportation.  They also offer reduction in fees for 3rd child.  All schools have football pitches, public pitches are mostly located out of town in smaller communities.In terms of accommodations, the price of real estate has gone down about 50% since 2015.  A small 3 br will cost you min 4KRM/mo so 5KRM/year is not something you will find anywhere close to expat areas or any other area for that matter.good luck